Five years ago managing director Andrew Laver decided that the Arnold Laver Group should have a totally integrated IT solution that would address all business areas – from selling timber, right through to processing accounts. He was insistent that the system should be Microsoft-based and able to integrate with Laver’s current highly specialised system for processing its timber stocks.
At the time there was nothing that suited Laver’s commercial requirements. But after a period of product evaluation and analysis, the company chose the Microsoft Business Solutions-Great Plains system which, it felt, was easily configurable and capable of the modifications needed to meet its demands. As its partner to conduct the implementation, it picked ICM Business Solution – and according to Colin Dean, Laver’s corporate systems director, they haven’t looked back since.
“The upgrade went live when we were told it would and since then we’ve gone from strength to strength,” he said.
He maintained that the user benefits of Laver’s new system are clear and there have been knock-on benefits in the way staff operate. “We’ve got people now who are motivated, trained, and using systems that work.”
The new system also enabled Laver to go from two accounting departments to one. “We were able to close our Bradford facility and transfer the work that had been done there across to our Sheffield office at a significantly reduced headcount. This allowed us to reduce overheads by £250,000.”
Reduction in paper
Laver also saw a “significant reduction” in paper trails. “Now if a customer wants a proof of delivery, we can pull it up on the screen,” said Mr Dean. “Credit control can fax or e-mail a copy without having to get up from their desk. They can just press a button and fire off a copy of the scanned image.
“Using the same technology, we now have a fully integrated purchase ledger scanning system. We receive about 450 purchase invoices per day and when each purchase invoice comes through, a sticky label is produced with a bar code stuck on the invoice.”
This bar coded invoice, he added, is scanned in Laver’s central administration department.
“Some of the details are keyed and we use the scanned copy for checking against the goods received note. If everything matches, the invoice is ready for payment. If not, it’s fired off electronically to the branch manager to track it down and approve manually. Before, it would be passed around internally, and could take days. We can now scan, pass an invoice through to the right person, approve it and send it back right away.”
Laver’s also says it has been inspired to come up with other “new ways of streamlining its business processes” since implementing the Great Plains software.
“We’re putting in new systems all the time,” said Mr Dean. “Currently we’re writing a system which will integrate the 180 different mobile phone bills that come to us electronically from O2. We will have an intranet site where people can go and approve them. Where they’ve used company mobiles for personal calls, they will have a screen which will automatically feed into the Great Plains system with an automatic debit against their salary at the end of the month. Our phone bills are three feet deep and one person has spent a week a month distributing them. Now she is freed up for that time.”
Next, Laver’s and ICM Business Solution are planning a wages system that integrates with the new software system to improve workflow in the accounts department.
